


The Robot

by baseballchica03



Series: 5 Things [3]
Category: Baby-Sitters Club - Ann M. Martin
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-01
Updated: 2013-11-01
Packaged: 2017-12-31 04:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1027175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baseballchica03/pseuds/baseballchica03
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Charlie saves Janine from bullies, and Janine saves Charlie from boredom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Robot

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion fic to [The Charlie Thomas Hypothesis](http://archiveofourown.org/works/603159), although they're two separate, complete pieces and not really a Part 1/Part 2 dealie. This one is more of a flashback that explains the photograph that Charlie gives to Janine in CTH. It has been bubbling around in my head for a long, long time. Many thanks to my lovely beta **luxken27** , through whom all long-lingering WIPs seem to get finished.

Janine sat in front of the house, her nose buried in an oversized book. Mimi had told her to go outside and get some fresh air, so Janine simply shifted from her hideout in the living room to her current perch on the front steps. Squinting in the sun, she pushed up her tiny glasses and wondered what the big deal about "fresh air" was, but she hadn't wanted to argue with Mimi. She did her best to get comfortable and continued to read. 

Before too long, Janine was interrupted by the whoops and hollers of three boys riding by on bicycles. She hoped it would be a brief interruption, but soon she realized that they had turned around at the corner and were circling back up the block. 

"Hey, guys," called the biggest one to the other boys riding with him. "Will you look at what we've got here?"

They slowed to a stop in front of the Kishi house. "It looks like a tiny little geek!" the second boy shrieked. Janine tried to keep her eyes on her book. 

"What's the matter, geek?" the third boy taunted. "Don't you have any friends to play with?"

Her face crumpled a little. The truth was, Janine didn't have many friends. That wasn't the reason she was sitting alone reading a book on that particular day, but it wasn't entirely untrue. She blinked hard a few times to ward off the tears welling up behind her eyes. 

Suddenly, Janine heard the sound of sneakers slapping roughly on the pavement. She looked up from the page she had been staring at so intently to see Charlie Thomas rushing across the street. "Hey, you!" he shouted angrily. "You leave her alone."

The boys turned toward him, laughing hysterically. The smallest of the three boys almost fell off his bike in the process. 

"Oh, yeah, Thomas?" asked the ringleader.

Charlie clenched his fists tightly at his sides. "You heard me. Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

"Like you?" the smallest one shot back, stepping off his bike.

"That's right, Damon," Charlie replied defiantly. "Like me.”

The standoff was interrupted by Richard Spier, who had left the office early to check in on Mary Anne's new babysitter. "Hello, Charlie," he called out, with a knowing look on his face.

"He's not worth it," the biggest boy said, pulling Damon back. "Let's get out of here." The three bullies hopped on their bikes and sped off down the street. 

Charlie gave a friendly wave at Mr. Spier, then walked up the sidewalk and sat next to Janine on the steps. "Hi," he greeted her. 

"Hi," said Janine in a small voice. 

"Don't worry about those guys. You're smarter than all three of them combined!"

She smiled. "Thank you. Won't they be mad at you?"

"Probably. But who cares about them, anyway?" Charlie glanced down at the open book resting on Janine's lap. "Whatcha reading?"

"It's a book about robots," she replied excitedly, showing him a page with a large photo of R2D2 and C3PO right in the center.

"Whoa, neat!" Charlie exclaimed. "I didn't know you liked Star Wars!"

"Oh, yes. And there are all different kinds of robots in the book, too."

"Hey," Charlie said, jumping up suddenly. "You should come over to my house! My mom just got a new microwave, and Sam and me were gonna figure out what to do with the box. She said we could have it. We could build a robot!"

Janine blinked. "Really?"

"Sure! You know about robots, right?" 

Janine nodded at him. 

"Well, then, come on!" Charlie grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. 

"I'm going to play at the Thomases’!" Janine called to Mimi through screen door. She held her book tightly to her chest and ran across the street, her hand still tucked into Charlie’s. 

The two skidded to a halt on the Thomases' lawn. "Hey, Sam," Charlie said. "Let's make a robot."

"But I want a boat," Sam whined. 

"The box is too small for a boat."

"But I'm the reason we have the box!" he protested.

"Only because you broke the old microwave," Charlie replied. Janine giggled. "Come on, we'll even let you be the robot."

"Okay," Sam conceded. "But how do you make a robot, anyway?"

"Janine knows," Charlie beamed. He turned to her. "Um... how do you make a robot?"

She flipped the pages in her book, clearly searching for something in particular. "Ah, here it is!" she exclaimed, pointing to a black and white photo on the left side of the page. That robot in particular was a boxy-looking thing from an old science fiction TV show. It had accordion arms, dials on the chest, and antennae on top. “We could make one like this.”

“It’s perfect,” Charlie agreed.

“I can’t see!” Sam whined. “I wanna see the robot. Let me see!” 

Janine turned the book around so Sam could look at it. 

“Neat! But that one is shiny. How do we make it shiny?”

She thought for a moment. “Maybe aluminum foil? Do you have any that your mother would let us use?”

Charlie laughed. “That’s why we have a new microwave.”

“I essploded it!” Sam added gleefully. “Mom was really mad, but it was _so cool_!”

“I’ll go get the foil,” Charlie said. “Mom hid it from him. Be right back!”

“OK.” 

“Come see our box!” Sam shouted at Janine, galloping across the small yard. 

She followed him over to the mess of cardboard and craft supplies lying on the grass. In addition to the microwave box, there was a shoebox of some sort, construction paper, pipe cleaners, glue, and a handful of markers. She could definitely work with this. 

“What do we do?” he asked. 

“Well…” Janine picked up the smaller box, one that might have once held boots. “We can use this for the head and the big one for the body. We can cut out some holes for your arms so it fits better.”

“Then what?”

“Maybe we can draw a control panel and glue it to the front, with knobs and buttons.” She scrunched up her nose as she referenced the picture in her book. “And this arrow thing with the colors and numbers, too.” 

Just then, Charlie ran out of the house holding the roll of aluminum foil triumphantly over his head. “I got it!” he cried. 

The three set to work building their robot. After Sam crumpled half the roll of foil into a tangled mess, he was put in charge of replicating the control panel from the book, while Janine and Charlie prepared the boxes with the foil and arm-holes. 

There was much laughter and shrieking as Sam squeezed into their creation. Janine taped on the finishing touch – two red pipe cleaners for antennae on the top of the robot head. 

Mrs. Thomas’s face appeared at the front door. “What on earth is going on out there?” she asked, stepping out onto the porch. 

“I’m a robot, Mama!” Sam shouted. “Beep beep boop!” 

“Is that my foil again?” she asked, her voice stern, but with the threat of laughter in the corners of her eyes. 

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Thomas,” Janine said in a small voice. “It was my idea.” 

“No! It was my idea, Mom!” Charlie interrupted. “Janine just helped. Isn’t it neat?”

Sam continued to walk around the yard, making stiff motions with his arms and loud robot noises. “Beep boop boop beep errrrrrrk!”

Mrs. Thomas shook her head and couldn’t help smiling. “It’s all right, dear. Stay here and let me go get the camera.” 

“Why did you say that?” Janine whispered when Mrs. Thomas turned her back. 

Charlie shrugged. “You’re my friend. I didn’t want you to get in trouble.” 

Mrs. Thomas reemerged from the house, Polaroid in one hand and Kristy’s sticky toddler hand in the other. “Come sit down, sweetie,” she said, leading Kristy over to a shady patch of grass. Sam moved jerkily across the lawn toward her, continuing his soundtrack of robot noises. 

“Go on over there with him,” Mrs. Thomas suggested, coaxing Janine and Charlie closer to him as she took a step back and opened the camera with a snap. Sam shifted around in place, the box on his head falling forward over his eyes. Charlie stood to his right and grinned at his mother. 

Janine stood to Sam’s left. “Wait, let me just fix the one—“ she started to say, turning to adjust the slipping antenna on top of the box. 

“I can not see!” Sam shrieked in his best robot monotone. Kristy giggled and clapped her hands together with glee. 

“Smile!” Mrs. Thomas called out, capturing the moment forever.


End file.
